The Infernal Train
by Kessie-Louise
Summary: The entire chapter 6 (The Infernal Train) of Madness Returns written out with full dialog for you to enjoy any time of the day without starting up your game... or YouTube. Mostly written to coincide the Puppetmaster fight with Bumby and Alice's dialog, and to show what Bumby saw in Alice before she pushed him.


Alice made her way to the train station. She wasn't sure why she felt compelled to go there, or if Bumby was even there at all. But she didn't care, she was almost finished with her battle. Almost...

She entered Moorgate Station and down its stairs. There stood Bumby by the tracks, waiting for the next train. Alice's heart grew with fury. For years, all these years, she could have had her family with her. They wouldn't be dead. They would have all been ALIVE if it wasn't for him. Now it was time to end this.

"You oozing sore of depravity," Alice said to him, her voice shaking with the anger she couldn't hide anymore. "Children wearing their names around their necks, as if they're breeding livestock!"

Bumby turned around and simply smiled at her.

"A declaration of their pedigree." he told her, with a small wave of his hand. " You could use one. They're proud to display their provenance."

"You brute!" Alice thundered. "They can't remember who they are or where they're from. How many minds have you twisted into forgetfulness?"

"Not enough!" Bumby informed her, "Yours would have been a triumph. Still, you're an insane wreck. My work is done!"

_The little doll fell and broke her shell; she revealed to be a young woman; ready to fight for everything._

* * *

_Alice landed on the Infernal Train. She walked toward the engine; that's where He would be, and she was ready this time. In the first car, she saw Hatter._

"_Hatter," Alice plead, "I must stop this Infernal Train and the evil force that drives it!"_

"_Everything's a nail, is it Miss Hammerhead?" Hatter scowled. "First it was your search, freighted with fear and fragmented memories. Now its the train. Never time for tea! While your brain's on holiday, we're ruined! Now we're all mad here and that's a good excuse for going to hell in a teapot, but not for forgetting what your senses saw._

_Forgetting is just forgetting, except when it's not." Hatter concluded, "Then they call it something else. I'd like to forget what you did. I've tried. But I can't."_

"You've used me and abused me," Alice told Bumby, clenching her fists, "But you will NOT destroy me."

"No?" Bumby said, raising an eyebrow, "The damage is done. The old Alice and her Wonderland retreat are demolished. You can't even recognize what's happened. And you're powerless to change it or move against me. I've made certain of that."

_In the next car, Cater... er... Butterfly was waiting for her._

"_Come to receive your punishment, then?" he asked, simply blinking at her._

"_I know... I'm guilty of something..." Alice slowly admitted. "But punishment never suits the victims of the crime."_

"_Abuse is a crime that strong visit on the weak." Butterfly told her. "And you're right. Abusers are insufficiently punished for the damage they do. Those who witness abuse without seeking retribution for the harmed pay a penalty. Your own pain mitigates your failure to act earlier, but you may not yet have paid enough to for witnessing the pain of others."_

You corrupted my memories," Alice told Bumby, her nails digging into her palms so that they were nearly bleeding, "But you failed to make me forget."

"I could've made you into a tasty bit. Clients out the door waiting for a piece from a raving delusional beauty, with no memory of the past, or no sense of the future. But you wouldn't forget; you insisted on holding onto your fantasies. You're mad. Like your sister."

Alice scowled and took a step forward in defense.

"Don't speak of her." she demanded. "You didn't know her..."

"Your sister was a tease." Bumby told Alice with a smile, something that made Alice sick, "Pretended to despise me. She got what she wanted... in the end." At this, Bumby held up his watch to check the time for his train. On it was a key; Lizzie's key.

_In the next car, the Red Queen sat, ready to tell Alice of her knowlege._

"_My Lizzie..." Alice said in disbelief, to the queen she said, "What is this train's destination?"_

_Madness and destruction. You shouldn't ask questions you know the answers to, it's not polite. And that noise wasn't Lizzie talking in her sleep."_

"_Oh no..." Alice said with tears, backing away from the queen slightly, "Poor Lizzie!"_

"_And there are no centaurs in Oxford!" the queen also informed her, "Make your survival mean something, or we are all doomed!"_

* * *

_Alice made it to the engine. She paused for a moment, then walked through the door. This was it. The fight to regain her sanity has begun. The walls broke away to reveal the Puppetmaster. Bumby..._

"I'll see you charged. In prison, some half-wit bruiser will make you his sweetheart... and then you'll hang!" Alice spat at Bumby. Bumby rolled his eyes.

"Indeed?" he asked, doubting it. "A hysterical woman; former lunatic, roaring outrageous accusations against a respectable social architect and scientist. My god, Alice, who would believe you? I scarcely believe it myself."

_She cut the doll head on Puppetmaster's hand. It shook it as if it hurt, but Alice smiled. She would win._

"You, monstrous creature..." Alice hissed. "Such evil will be punished."

"By whom? By what? Psychotic, silly bitch. Your madness will be punished. Now leave. I'm expected your replacement." With that, Bumby pulled out his watch again with Lizzie's key.

_A second hand came down and she easily cut off the doll head on it as well. The Puppetmaster groaned in pain, It laid it's hands on the ground while it let its ugly beard hand low. The beard has baby doll heads on it too. A couple shots with the Teapot Cannon and..._

Alice marched to Bumby, her fists slowly relaxing. She looked him in the eye before taking Lizzie's key back. She turned to take her leave as Bumby started to say something, but they both stopped.

_The Puppetmaster swayed back and forth, finally defeated. Alice watched as he fell. Wonderland was hers again. No one had any power over it anymore besides her. She had won._

Alice turned around to face Bumby. Her face was unreadable as Bumby gasped at her. There was something, something he saw for a split moment; a girl, that was obviously Alice no doubt, that was confident, unafraid, willing, and ready to avenge what is right for not only her (she learned that now) but for others as well. Alice scowled at him. He did nothing as Alice walked toward him. She made him get as close to the train tracks as possible, then pushed him in the pathway of a passing train. How she knew the train was coming, or if the train was supposed to come at all, would be a debate placed in history. Alice just stood there. She had won. Lizzie's key was hers, and her family had been avenged. For once, she felt a more inner peace in her than she had ever had before. It was the greatest feeling of all.

* * *

Alice walked back up the station tunnel and back onto Main Street. There, the world of London changed into one mirroring Wonderland... which mirrored London in turn. She looked around. This... was fine with her. Both of her worlds have been mastered; mental and physical. What better way to celebrate that than with a mix of both; Londerland.

"_Ah Alice, we can't go home again. No surprise, really. Only a very few find the way, and most of them don't recognize it when they do. Delusions, too, die hard. Only the savage regard the endurance of pain as the measure of worth. Forgetting pain is convenient. Remembering it, agonizing. But recovering the truth is worth the suffering. And our Wonderland, though damaged, is safe in memory... for now."_


End file.
